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An award-winning cartoonist being held on Manus Island has been told he must return to Iran despite severe mental illness.

The Guardian reports that Ali, an Iranian asylum-seeker who goes by the pen name Eaten Fish, has had his refugee claim rejected and been told he must return to Iran, despite severe mental illness and Iran refusing to accept asylum seekers who are forcibly repatriated.

Visitor numbers and spending are on the rebound in Vanuatu according to a recent study.

The country had seen a massive drop in visitor arrivals earlier in the year due to reduced flights arising from safety concerns about the runway at its international airport and following on from the devastation of cyclone Pam in 2015.

Heavy rain in American Samoa has caused flooding in parts of the territory.

One-point-eight inches of rain in two hours was recorded by the Weather Service early this morning as a South Pacific Convergence Zone continued to hover over the Samoan islands for a fourth day bringing heavy rain and strong winds.

Marshall Islands access to the internet largely halted Wednesday night as repair work on a submarine fiber optic cable began.

The National Telecommunications Authority in Majuro shifted all phone and Internet communications from the cable to satellites, reducing bandwidth available to this western Pacific nation by 97 percent.

The Chairman of Vanuatu Free West Papua Organisation, Pastor Allan Nafuki, has expressed utter disappointment at leaders of the Melanesian Spearhead Group for not fulfilling their promise to push through West Papua’s application to become a full member of the Melanesian Spearhead Group this year.

Pacific people have been recognised for services to their communities in the New Year Honours list, with two receiving the highest honour. New Zealand's double Olympic gold medallist shotputter, Valerie Adams, is now a Dame.

A world-renowned shot putter, Dame Valerie has won four World Championship gold medals, two Olympic gold medals, three Commonwealth Games gold medals, and three World Indoor Championship gold medals.

The chairman of Samoa's National Council of Churches says a move by the government to amend the Constitution and make Samoa a Christian State is unnecessary.

Reverend Kasiano Leaupepe's remarks were in relation to a Constitutional amendment bill presented for its first reading by Prime minister Tuilaepa Sa'ilele Malielegaoi last week during the last sitting of parliament for 2016.

Pacific Islands Report is a nonprofit news publication of the Pacific Islands Development Program at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. Offered as a free service to readers, PIR provides an edited digest of news, commentary and analysis from across the Pacific Islands region, Monday - Friday.